And now for something completely different…
The Story of the Weeping Camel, a 2003 award winning documentary by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, follows the life of a contemporary nomadic Mongolian family in the Gobi desert who raise camels and sheep. It focuses on the season when the camels – very strange looking camels who were not used in making Lawrence of Arabia – are giving birth, and what occurs after one of the camels refuses her calf. The family, 3 or 4 generations who share a compound, eventually have to rely on an ancient ritual involving special ceremonies, foods and music, and requiring their sending for a stringed instrument virtuoso to come and assist.
What’s remarkable is the success of the film in capturing the life style of the family, its rhythms and strengths, and in individualizing each member of the family, their roles, and their harmony. It’s remarkably absorbing and I think remarkably successful in giving a picture of the lives of highly traditional people within a modern world. By the end, I thought I understood these folks, and thought their lives and lifestyle to be “just like ours” while of course totally different.
A very special cinematic experience. I even thought some of the camels were cute – anyone who’s been with camels know how unlikely that is!